RVA Cures: Conquering Childhood Cancer

September 1, 2017 – January 19, 2018

This exhibition, organized by Connor’s Heroes and featuring 100 painted zebrafish and photographs by Kristin Seward, tells the stories of children, caregivers, and researchers in our community who are facing the number one disease killer of children – cancer.

Connor’s Heroes is a Richmond-based nonprofit whose mission is to build a community of heroes who provide hope, guidance, and support to children with cancer and their families. The organization was developed by Connor’s family as a salute to every hero who helped Connor during his two and a half year treatment and eventual triumph over leukemia. That experience brought about the realization that pediatric cancer is dramatically underfunded and lead to the establishment of the Connor’s Heroes Pediatric Cancer Research Endowment Fund - Richmond’s first endowment fund to support childhood cancer research.

The zebrafish on display throughout this exhibition are available for purchase and every dollar donated will support zebrafish research conducted by Dr. Seth Corey, Children’s Hospital Foundation Endowed Chair in Pediatric Cancer Research. The smallest fish were painted by childhood cancer patients and siblings. The medium fish were painted by Richmond artists. The largest fish were painted by artists participating in the RVA Street Art Festival Contest.

University of Richmond students Nikolina Dakovic, ’20, Jasmine Feng, ’20, and Free Henderson, ’19, were involved in the exhibition planning and research.